time of Jesus. The discovery was momentous. The scrolls not only confirmed, in ink and parchment, the ancient origins of the Bible but also its accuracy. The text of the ancient parchments amazingly matched the modern text of the Bible. In two thousand years the word of God remained unchanged. Contained in the scrolls themselves was the ancient prophecy ‘The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.’” 1
“When did all this happen?”
“The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the year 1947.”
“1947! The same year everything else happened . . . the fifty-year prophecy, the Partition Plan, and the UN resolution that would bring forth the rebirth of Israel.”
“In the year of restoration comes the restoration of the word.”
“So the people of Israel came back to the land, and God restored the word to them.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle. “And when did the nation of Israel actually come back into the world?”
“The following year.”
“First the word and then the creation.”
“So first the scrolls and then the nation.”
“And the scrolls themselves would speak of the nation’s restoration. The most celebrated of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the scroll of Isaiah. It was there in that very first cave and was preserved in its entirety. Israel would build an entire sanctuary to house it, the Shrine of the Book. It was that scroll that contained some of the most powerful words of comfort ever given to Israel and some of the most beautiful prophecies of its future restoration. Several of these would come true in the twentieth century with the gathering of the Jewish people back to the land:
He will . . . assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 2
“But the mystery joining together the nation and the word would go even deeper. On the first night when Sukenik sat in his study deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls, when after two thousand years their ancient secrets would for the first time be revealed, something else was happening. In the next room Sukenik’s youngest son, Mati, was listening to the radio. Mati would rush back and forth to tell his father what he was hearing.”
“Why?”
“The day that Sukenik brought the Dead Sea Scrolls back to his home, the day he unrolled them, and the day their words first came to light was November 29, 1947. November 29, 1947, was the day that the United Nations was assembled in New York to vote on the resolution that would bring Israel back into existence.”
“The word and the nation on the same day!”
“When Sukenik’s son rushed into his office that night to give him the last report, his father was deeply absorbed in the ancient words coming to life before his eyes. His son shouted the news: the United Nations resolution had passed. Israel would again become a nation.”
“The lost possession,” I said, “the word that was lost for two thousand years, was now restored, and the nation that was lost for two thousand years was now restored . . . at the same time.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “in the very same year, on the very same day, on the very same night—at the very same moment.”
“The next mystery would come from a vision that startled me more than any of the others I had seen up to that point. And it was in that vision that I learned the meaning of the letter on the third door and on the ram.”
“Which vision was that?”
“The skeleton lady.”
Chapter 28
RESURRECTION LAND
I FOUND THE Oracle sitting in the same chamber as before, surrounded by the clay vessels. He lifted up one of them, opened its lid, reached inside, and removed a rolled-up piece of paper.”
“This is the declaration,” he said, “that proclaimed to the world that the nation of Israel had returned.”
He handed it to me. I noticed the date, May 14, 1948.
“The declaration?” I said.
“This is what was published by the Provisional Government at the moment of Israel’s return. But there’s something strange about it.”
“What?”
“Words you would not expect to appear on any such document and that have never appeared on the founding document of any other nation. Look at the bottom, the bottom left. Read it.”
“‘Prophesy over these bones.’ What on earth does that mean?”
“What you saw on the ram and on the third door is the Hebrew letter tav. It stands for the word tikumah. It was the year of tikumah. Tikumah is the Hebrew word for resurrection and